Five dead, two children missing after flash floods in Bucks County

Bucks County officials knew the situation was grim on Saturday, after more than 4 inches of rain fell on Upper Makefield Township in two hours, trapping 11 vehicles on Route 532, sweeping three away. Water rescues were underway, with 12 people unaccounted for.

“It’s only beginning, sadly,” said Bucks County Coroner Meredith Buck late Saturday night.

Tragic details began to emerge by morning. Buck and Upper Makefield Fire Chief Tim Brewer confirmed the bodies of three people swept away by the flash floods had been recovered. Four family members, including a 9-month-old boy and his 2-year-old sister, were missing. Given the severity of the flooding, the outlook was bleak.

“In my 44 years, I’ve never seen anything like it,” Brewer said. “We are fairly certain we are in a recovery mode.”

As the day progressed, search teams canvassed the hilly terrain around Houghs Creek and the 1000 block of Washington Crossing Road, a winding stretch of Route 532 where the guardrails had given way to Saturday’s floodwaters. Before 11:30 a.m., a task force recovered a fourth body a mile south of Taylorsville Road, between the Delaware Canal towpath and the Delaware River. All the deceased were found outside their cars, having exited them in an attempt to escape the worsening floods.

All the while, heavy rains continued to pound the Northeast and the Philadelphia region Sunday. The National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for parts of Montgomery County and Northwest Philadelphia in the morning, along with flash flood warnings for parts of Bucks, Montgomery, Delaware, and Philadelphia Counties. Rainfall amounts varied around the region over a 24-hour period, from about a third of an inch in Philadelphia to an inch in Quakertown and 2.87 inches in Washington Crossing, according to Weather Underground.

Gov. Josh Shapiro and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman joined an afternoon news conference in Upper Makefield, where Brewer delivered a heartbreaking update: A fifth body had been recovered about 100 yards from where they had found the fourth victim. The toddler and the infant remained missing, and search crews continued to look for them.

“Our commitment to finding the two children will still be unwavering,” Brewer said.

Though the names of the five deceased victims were not released, Brewer said Upper Makefield officials had been in contact with the family of the two missing children. “They have asked us to share their story,” he said.

The family — three kids, mom, dad, and a grandmother — was visiting Bucks County from their home in Charleston, S.C., and were driving to a barbecue when flash floods struck on Saturday afternoon.

”As they tried to escape the fierce floodwaters, dad took his 4-year-old son while a mother and the grandmother grabbed the two additional children,” Brewer said. “Miraculously, dad and son were able to get to safety. However, the grandmother, the mother, and the two children were swept away by the floodwaters.”

Brewer confirmed the mother was among the five deceased individuals that had been recovered. The grandmother survived and was treated at a local hospital, Upper Makefield Township Police Department said in a later Facebook post.

”We cannot even begin to imagine what the family is going through with two beautiful children gone,” he said. “We ask once again for all those affected by this tragedy for your thoughts and prayers, and please hug your loved ones a little bit sooner than later.”

Several creeks suffuse the rolling hills of Upper Makefield, an idyllic swath of Bucks County best known for Washington Crossing. Local residents said that flooding on some of the lower-lying roads is common, but Saturday’s rainfall and its aftermath was some of the worst in decades.

Upper Makefield resident Sarah Huntington had spent Saturday afternoon watching the downpour fill up her swimming pool.

“It just came in sheets,” Huntington said. “It would get a little lighter and then would come down just as heavy again.”

She remembers the rain lasting about an hour and a half. She and her husband ventured out around 6 p.m., shortly after it let up, for dinner plans in Yardley. They were already en route when they got text-message alerts about flash flooding, so they kept moving cautiously along Taylorsville Road, avoiding areas they knew were flood-prone. They eventually turned back when they saw rushing waters and pavement broken up by the rainwater.

“It wasn’t just the water flowing over the road, but the force of it had started to destroy the road,” Huntington said, adding that she saw lots of other drivers on the road that evening. “This all happened right as so many people were running around, dropping off kids, picking up kids, going out to dinner.”

Several roads remained closed on Sunday as local, state, and federal responders continued to search the area for the two missing children. Shapiro said PennDot would assess Route 532 when the weather cleared, and that the state’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources was prepared to assist the Delaware Canal State Park however necessary.

“We will be here as long as it takes,” he said before adding that more bad weather was expected later in the evening. “I want to reiterate how important it is not to drive through any sort of meaningful amount of standing water. We want people to be safe here in Bucks County and across Southeastern Pennsylvania.”